[HN Gopher] A Doctor's Dark Year
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       A Doctor's Dark Year
        
       Author : wglb
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2021-04-21 19:44 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
        
       | mrlagmer wrote:
       | It is interesting to read stuff like this. We never had it bad in
       | Australia so when you read something like this it makes you
       | thankful for how we have handled it. Amazing that we will have
       | 80,000 people at a football game on Sunday.
        
         | decafninja wrote:
         | The Asian countries that fared relatively well -
         | Taiwan/Japan/Korea/etc.etc. - I guess you could chalk it up to
         | cultural differences, but what and how did Australia, a
         | "Western" country that I reckon is culturally more similar to
         | the USA and Europe than to say, Japan or Korea, do so well and
         | differently vs. the USA? Correct me if wrong, but Aussie
         | culture has an individualistic streak like the USA too, doesn't
         | it?
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | Geography, topology, authoritative control, non-porous border
           | which was closed, mandatory two week quarantine for any
           | exception
        
             | rvn1045 wrote:
             | + a small population of 25 million
        
         | taxicabjesus wrote:
         | One speculation I've read is that Australian/Japan/New
         | Zealand's very-bad 2019 flu season was SARS-CoV-2 before it
         | could be diagnosed. My understanding was that most cases of
         | "flu" are suspected, not laboratory-confirmed.
         | 
         | Just found this October 4, 2019 NY Times story: _Australia Just
         | Had a Bad Flu Season. That May Be a Warning for the U.S.,_
         | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/health/flu-australia-amer...
         | 
         | From this NY times article: "This year's Australian outbreak
         | began in April [2019], two months earlier than usual, and
         | persisted into October."
         | 
         | COVID-19 Cases in the US probably started November-ish.
         | COVID-19 was found in US blood samples from December 2019.
         | 
         | I had a day with an odd headache sometime around December 2019
         | or January 2020. I suspect I had a case of #EarlyCovid. Lots of
         | other people in North America were super-sick in
         | November/December 2019 and January 2020. Others have been using
         | the hashtag for longer than I:
         | https://twitter.com/search?q=%23EarlyCovid
         | 
         | Edit: At least 4 downvotes in 16 minutes. This indicates many
         | of you do not believe could SARS-CoV-2 could have been
         | spreading before it was isolated in Wuhan China in December
         | 2019, or that I and many others might have had a case of non-
         | diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 before tests became available in the US in
         | March 2020.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pande...
         | 
         | "A September 2020 review noted "The possibility that the
         | COVID-19 infection had already spread to Europe at the end of
         | last year is now indicated by abundant, even if partially
         | circumstantial, evidence", including pneumonia case numbers and
         | radiology in France and Italy in November and December.[8]" -
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pande...
         | 
         | What does it mean if the COVID-19 timeline is wrong?
        
           | projectileboy wrote:
           | I'm not totally sure why you're being downvoted, it's an
           | interesting question. My niece in Seattle had a very bad
           | "flu" for about three weeks early last year, well before the
           | initial wave in the Pacific Northwest. I hope we will
           | eventually learn a bit more about how and where this started
           | and how and where it spread, so that we can do a better job
           | next time. (Putting aside the obvious ways the US and other
           | parts of the world chose to deny reality, there still is much
           | to learn.)
        
       | bengale wrote:
       | I tend to find the overuse of the word hero bothers me, but I
       | don't know what other word would describe people like this.
        
         | pmiller2 wrote:
         | This would be a correct usage, not a performative usage like
         | corporations calling grocery store workers "heroes" because
         | they have to go to work or lose jobs they depend on.
        
       | raunak wrote:
       | https://archive.is/hEoUL
        
       | throwawayboise wrote:
       | Doctors always see people at their sickest and most fragile. I'm
       | not sure I could do it, but it's what they sign up for.
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-22 23:00 UTC)